Treasures

Just as expected, the corridors and staircases leading to the upper floors were littered with more than a dozen traps of varying sizes.

Over half of them were sharp spikes that suddenly appeared out of thin air, while the rest were attacks in the form of energy.

The former were all blocked by sturdy dragon scales and posed not the slightest threat.

As for the latter, they were absorbed by her enormous wings.

Simply put, Vermees had used her powerful, magic-resistant body to tank all the damage from the traps.

Fortunately, for an adult dragon, these amounted to nothing more than minor injuries, far from serious wounds or anything life-threatening.

Besides, Raymond had long been fully aware of the emotions the Red Dragon had experienced during the battle just now.

In fact, ever since he had established a stable telepathic link with his awakened creation, even the slightest thought of harming him would be transmitted to him with perfect clarity.

He simply had no intention of exposing it before she acted on it.

After all, anyone who suddenly became a slave controlled by someone else would inevitably feel intense resistance.

Especially a Red Dragon as arrogant as her, one who did not consider any other creature worthy of notice.

Thus, the man and dragon barely squeezed through the doorway and successfully reached the upper levels of the mage tower.

After glancing at the somewhat plain furnishings around them, Vermees immediately asked, "Which way should we go next?"

"Don't rush. Since we're already here, we might as well search the rooms on the left first. That's where Astar stored valuable items. Unless something unexpected happened, there should be quite a few books and notes containing precious knowledge, as well as gemstones, magic items, and scrolls."

Compared with ordinary apprentices who might never have had a chance to come up here in their entire lives, Raymond was exceptionally familiar with this place.

He came here three to five times nearly every month.

Sometimes, it was to open a portal to the Forgotten Realms;

Sometimes, it was to assist the Necromancer Archmage—Astar—in creating something;

And sometimes, it was to study books acquired from another world with him, along with never-before-seen magic items, scrolls, or knowledge extracted from prisoners' mouths and minds.

In short, in the eyes of the other apprentices, Raymond was Astar's most favored and trusted student in the entire tower, without question.

"You mean... there's valuable treasure here?" The Red Dragon's eyes immediately lit up.

At that moment, her greed and desire for wealth overcame everything else.

"Treasure? If you mean precious metal currency like gold and silver, it should all be in the room where the portal is located, used as bait to attract greedy people or other creatures like you. I don't think anyone could carry away that huge pile of heavy stuff without a large spatial container."

With that, Raymond climbed down from the dragon's back and used a Creature Card to summon a human soldier armed with a shortsword and shield, ordering him to push open the door on the left.

He did this mainly to prevent any mechanisms or traps from being attached to the door.

Although he did not think Astar would waste time and effort setting traps in his own private quarters, traps that would be incredibly troublesome to both activate and deactivate.

Still, there was never anything wrong with being careful.

A mere second later, the facts proved that such caution had been absolutely the right decision.

The instant the human soldier's hand touched the doorknob, a red flash suddenly appeared.

As if he had seen something terrifying, he immediately panicked, ran about uncontrollably, and let out screams of fear and despair.

There was no doubt that the summoned human warrior had been attacked by a mental spell.

It might have been Fear, or perhaps emotional manipulation.

Fortunately, the effects of such magic usually did not last very long.

Before long, he returned to normal.

Raymond believed the trap on the door had probably only been meant to sound an alarm, allowing the Iron Golems and Flesh Golems that had already been destroyed to rush over and deal with intruders.

Otherwise, it could easily have been replaced with a Negative Energy Ray or an even more terrifying death spell.

Unfortunately, those loyal guards were gone now.

Upon entering the cluttered room, which was less than twenty square meters in size, the first thing they noticed were several cloth bags the size of biscuit tins piled on the table.

After opening them, they found uncut raw gemstones of various colors sorted by category inside.

Some of the diamonds frequently used in spellcasting and magic item crafting had even been ground into powder and individually packaged for convenient use.

"These gemstones are worth at least sixty-four thousand three hundred and fifty-one Dant gold pieces! And seven Taran silver coins!"

The Red Dragon truly was a born treasure collector and appraisal master.

Vermees took only one glance before giving an estimate with an error so small it could practically be ignored.

Dant and Taran were legal currencies minted by Amn, the nation with the most thriving commercial activity on Faerun.

Dant was gold currency, while Taran was silver currency.

Among the countless precious-metal currencies of the Forgotten Realms, these two had the most stable value, the widest recognition, and the broadest circulation.

"Not bad. Looks like I won't have to worry about running out of gemstones for quite a while." Satisfied, Raymond stuffed the cloth bags of gemstones into his satchel one by one.

Though this somewhat worn leather satchel did not look large, it was actually a magic item capable of holding far more than its own volume.

Moreover, whoever carried it could barely feel any weight.

Unfortunately, its space was quite limited, roughly equivalent to a large storage cabinet.

If he was not careful, it could easily be filled up.

Just as Raymond turned his attention elsewhere, Vermees immediately leaned closer and said greedily, "As for those gemstones, I think I have the right to demand a share."

"No. These gemstones were carefully selected, high-quality spellcasting materials. Giving them to someone like you, who would only collect them and let them mold in her lair, would be pure waste. Only in my hands can they be used to their fullest."

After saying that, Raymond ignored the Red Dragon's face, twisted by jealousy and rage, and ordered the human soldier to take the thick books and notes from the shelf, open them, and hand them over to him.

He did this mainly to prevent them from carrying some strange magic, or from being dangerous objects created by evil magical creatures themselves.

He had personally seen an apprentice flip through a book made of human skin and filled with all manner of cruel, evil sacrificial rituals, only for the apprentice's mind to gradually fall under control until he finally descended into insane madness.

In the world of magic, acquiring knowledge was never a safe matter.

The knowledge that granted greater power often meant bearing enormous risks beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Fortunately, the books and notes on the shelves in this room were fairly normal.

With time limited, he could not afford to distinguish them one by one, so he simply stuffed them all into his satchel and took them away.

In the storage room on the upper level, aside from the gemstones and over twenty books and notes unavailable even in the mid-level public library, Raymond found a total of two wands—one containing thirty charges of Scare, the other forty-three charges of Animate Dead;

One scroll of Greater Animate Dead;

Two Charm Person scrolls;

One Protection from Arrows scroll;

One Invisibility scroll;

One unfinished, semi-complete Ring of Spell Storing;

A black robe enchanted with numerous protective spells, which he could not wear for the time being because of his age and height;

And a small number of miscellaneous potions.

To outsiders, this would perhaps already have seemed like an exceedingly rich haul.

But he knew perfectly well that compared to the Necromancer Archmage's true wealth, these things did not even amount to scraps from a meal.

Clearly, the truly important and valuable items had long since been hidden away.

It was even highly possible that the missing Astar had packed them up and taken them with him.

If he had enough time, Raymond would certainly find a way to search the tower thoroughly from top to bottom.

But unfortunately, the undead creatures outside, which had battered the mage tower's defensive system to the brink of collapse, could pour in like a flood at any moment.